Paris SG waited until the very last minutes to win 1-0 against Girona on Wednesday during the first day of the Champions League where Manchester City were held to a 0-0 draw by Inter Milan.
After the first twelve matches, Bayern Munich are leading the regular phase on goal difference, level on points with the nine other teams that won on this first day.
Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga finally cracked. Imperial until then, the Argentinian committed a huge handling error, offering Nuno Mendes the opening goal and the win of the match in the 90th minute after an overflow and a blocked cross in the area.
Until then, PSG, dominant, had cruelly lacked efficiency against the surprising third of the last Liga, symbolized by the enormous miss of Ousmane Dembélé in the 54th minute.
Perfectly launched in front of goal by Randal Kolo Muani, the French international found himself in the area alone in front of the Catalan goalkeeper, but the Czech defender of Girona, Ladislav Krejčí, managed to catch him and the ball, annihilating the biggest Parisian opportunity.
Neither Kolo Muani (82nd) nor Achraf Hakimi (85th) had had more success against Paulo Gazzaniga, until his last-minute blunder.
In today’s clash, English champions Manchester City failed to beat Italian champions Inter Milan at home.
Dominant in the second half, but far from their Premier League standards (11 goals in 4 days), Erling Haaland and his teammates remained silent against the Italians in this remake of the 2023 C1 final, won by the English.
City’s playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, visibly physically injured, only played the first half, while a shock clash with Arsenal awaits his club on Sunday.
Bynoe-Gittens Double
At the same time, Borussia Dortmund, unfortunate finalists in the last edition against Real Madrid, took a long time to get the measure of Bruges (3-0).
Coming off the bench, Englishman Jamie Bynoe-Gittens scored twice (76th, 86th), before former Ligue 1 player Serhou Guirassy made the score worse from the penalty spot (90th+5).
Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic Glasgow won comfortably against a Slovan Bratislava team that was limited and dominated in all areas of the game (5-1).
Earlier in the day, Bologna, the surprise of the last Italian championship, but who have not won a match this season, were unable to beat the Ukrainians of Shakhtar Donetsk (0-0) and Sparta Prague, for their return to the C1, 19 years after their last participation, made short work of Salzburg 3-0.
On Thursday, Monaco will host FC Barcelona in the last clash of this first day, Atalanta will host the English side Arsenal, Atletico will host RB Leipzig and Brest will make its Champions League debut against the Austrians from Sturm Graz.
